The Chancellor has announced that the Autumn Budget 2018 will be held on Monday, 29 October 2018. The announcement was made on the GOV.UK website. The Treasury said the Budget will set out the government’s plan to build a stronger, more prosperous economy, building on the recent Spring Statement and last year’s Budget.

Earlier this month the Chancellor had stated before the House of Lords Economic Affairs Committee that he was not yet in a position to announce a date for the Autumn Budget 2018 saying it was ‘difficult to fix’. The October date means that the Autumn Budget will take place before important Brexit meetings scheduled for November. The timing of the Budget should allow the Finance Bill to pass through Parliament before any last minute Brexit legislation. However, for now no-one can predict what exact shape Brexit will take.

This is the second Budget to take place in the autumn following the government’s decision to switch to a new Budget cycle. The Budget will be followed by a Spring Statement in 2019 where the government retains the option to make changes to fiscal policy if the economic circumstances require it.

Details of all the Budget announcements will be made on a special section of the GOV.UK website which will be updated following completion of the Chancellor’s speech at the end of October.

The Chancellor Philip Hammond, has stated before the House of Lords Economic Affairs Committee, that he is not yet in a position to announce a date for the Autumn Budget 2018 saying it was ‘difficult to fix’. Last year, the Chancellor had used his annual meeting before the Economic Affairs Committee to announce the Budget date.

Now the Chancellor has said he is unable to fix a date at this time due to the significant political events currently taking place in relation to Brexit, including continued speculation that there may be a special European Council summit in November. The Chancellor also commented that he was ‘acutely conscious of the danger of creating precedent’ by announcing a date for the Budget this year at the Committee meeting.

The Chancellor has asked the Office for Budget Responsibility (OBR) to begin planning for an Autumn Budget. In response to a question from the Committee Chairman, he also commented that the required 10-week notice period given to the OBR is a minimum, not a maximum. Mr. Hammond has confirmed that he will announce a date to Parliament for the Autumn Budget as soon as it can be fixed in the calendar.

A new workplace right to paid leave for bereaved parents has been officially enshrined in law after the Parental Leave and Pay Bill achieving Royal Assent. The new law, which is expected to come into force in 2020, was welcomed by charities helping bereaved parents to cope with the distress of losing a child.

The new Parental Bereavement Leave and Pay Act, gives qualifying employed parents the right to claim bereavement pay and leave. The Act will give all employed parents a day-one right to 2 weeks’ leave if they lose a child under the age of 18 or suffer a stillbirth from 24 weeks of pregnancy. Employed parents will also be able to claim pay for this period, subject to meeting eligibility criteria.

The new legislation will replace existing rules, where employees have a day-one right to take a reasonable amount of unpaid time off work to deal with an emergency such as the death of a dependant. However, there is no statutory definition of what is a reasonable amount of time and this could give rise to potential disagreements between an employer and employee at a most difficult time.

Business Minister Kelly Tolhurst, said:

‘This law makes Parental Bereavement Leave a legal right for the first time in the UK’s history. Losing a child is an unimaginable trauma. I am delighted we have reached this important milestone which so many have campaigned for.’

The new Help to Save scheme for people on low incomes was officially opened with effect from 12 September 2018 following an 8-month trial. The new scheme allows those in work entitled to Working Tax Credit, and in receipt of Working Tax Credits or Child Tax Credits to save up to £50 a month for two years and receive a 50% government bonus.

The scheme is also open to UK residents who are claiming Universal Credit, and have a household or individual income of at least £542.88 for their last monthly assessment period (though note that payments from Universal Credit are not considered to be part of household income).

The scheme allows those eligible to save up to £50 a month for two years and receive a 50% government bonus. Account holders will then be able to continue saving under the scheme for a further 2 years, and receive another bonus. This could see those on low incomes receive a bonus of up to £1,200 on maximum savings of £2,400 over 4 year. After the 4 years, the Help to Save account will be closed and savers will not be able to reopen it or open another Help to Save account. The account balances are expected to be rolled over into successor accounts.

The new scheme could benefit an estimated 4 million people across the UK. There are no limits on how the money used can be spent but it is hoped that the money will be saved for urgent costs. Money paid into the account can be withdrawn at any time, but this could affect the size of the bonus payment.

HMRC continues to warn taxpayers to be aware of email phishing scams. Phishing emails are used by fraudsters to access recipients’ valuable personal details, such as usernames and passwords. Fake email messages can appear to be genuine but clicking on a link from within the email can result in personal information being compromised and the possibility of computer viruses affecting your computer or smartphone.

Taxpayers need to look out for emails that are from a similar address to HMRC such asrefunds@hmrc.org.uk. Fraudsters have also been known to falsify the ‘from’ address to look like a legitimate HMRC address for example @hmrc.gov.uk.

HMRC also publishes online guidance that confirm emails from HMRC will never:

notify you of a tax rebate,

offer you a repayment,

ask you to disclose personal information such as your full address, postcode, Unique Taxpayer Reference or details of your bank account,

give a non HMRC personal, response email address,

ask for financial information such as specific figures or tax computations, unless you’ve given HMRC prior consent and you’ve formally accepted the risks,

have attachments, unless you’ve given prior consent and you’ve formally accepted the risks,

provide a link to a secure log in page or a form asking for information – HMRC will ask you to log on to your online account to check for information instead.

You should also be wary of any emails that require urgent action, contain links to bogus websites or use a common greeting. Genuine emails from HMRC will usually be addressed to you personally. If you are unsure as to the validity of any email or communication from HMRC it should not be opened until the sender can be verified.